Diabetes is a disease in which the body's ability to produce or respond to the hormone insulin is impaired, resulting in abnormal metabolism of carbohydrates and elevated levels of glucose in the blood and urine. Prevention and treatment of diabetes include maintaining a healthy diet, regular physical exercise, a normal body weight, and avoiding use of tobacco products. In particular, it has been found that daily walking can have a positive effect on the health of diabetic and pre-diabetic patients in terms of reducing insulin resistance, lipid levels, and the visceral fat area. For example, walking more than 6500 steps daily at 2-3 km/h has been found to be clinically beneficial to overweight and obese individuals at risk of type 2 diabetes. A major challenge in developing an activity monitor for diabetic and pre-diabetic patients that monitors steps taken within the 2-3 km/h band is that while 6500 steps at 2-3 km/h takes roughly 90 minutes of continuous walking, the normal recorded activity of taking steps may be cumulative over the entire day and may be taken in isolated activities throughout the day, including steps derived from normal day-to-day activities (walking to meetings, cars, etc.). Due to this sporadic nature of activity performance, it can be difficult to judge a level of activity for a diabetic or pre-diabetic patient on any given day.
An activity monitor such as a pedometer can be used to improve the assessment of a level of activity for a diabetic or pre-diabetic patient based on a determined number of user's steps taken, distance traveled, and/or calories expended through-out a given day. Conventional pedometers use a built-in motion sensor (e.g., accelerometer) for detecting the orientation and/or movement of the pedometer, which may represent movement of the user attached to the pedometer. For example, when the pedometer is attached to a user, signals received from the motion sensor can be analyzed to determine (i) movement of the user, (ii) whether the movement is the user taking a step, (iii) a count for the number of steps determined to have been taken, (iv) a distance travelled by the steps, and/or (v) calories expended by taking the steps. Algorithms for analyzing the signals to determine movement of the user and whether the movement is the user taking a step (e.g., walking or running) can vary based on a number of factors including where on the user's body the pedometer is attached, processing power of the pedometer, memory or storage available for the pedometer, energy or power requirements of the pedometer, size constraints of the pedometer, material used to construct the pedometer, etc.